NEWS

Wyoming House votes to give landowners more information on condemnations Determining the fair market value of private property that government or private entities want to condemn for roads and pipelines may include weighing the price paid for comparable easements or leases elsewhere, the House decided Thursday. The House on second reading approved an amendment to its eminent domain bill to allow a number of factors to be considered in determining fair market value. On Wednesday the House had approved language specifying that value would be based on certified appraisals. The bill faces one more vote in the House before heading to the Senate. Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, proposed the amendment to allow determinations of fair market value to consider not only certified appraisals, but also other factors including how much the entity seeking to condemn private property had paid for other portions of the proposed project and the income the property could have realized for its owner if it weren't condemned. Laurie Goodman of the Wyoming Landowners Association said Thursday's discussions shows the House has a growing awareness of the private property rights issue....
Letter: Regulations needed for methane industry I am proud to live in a state where there are a few individuals who stand up for what is right in spite of attempted interference from the governor's office. The hay meadows, the most productive part of our ranch, are on Spotted Horse Creek, an ephemeral drainage. I am sorry to say that our experiences with the coalbed methane industry have not been happy ones. Devon Energy has flooded our hay meadows three times since 2000-01. In spite of a surface use agreement reached in 2002, they have not reclaimed our hay meadows as our surface use agreement states they will by May of 2002. We lost three artesian wells located in our winter pastures within hours of Marathon's dewatering of coalbed methane wells. We have lost over 200 beautiful old stand cottonwood trees that lined Spotted Horse Creek. When our hay meadows were flooded and subsequently froze over, they were drowned. Four of our baby calves were drowned in Spotted Horse Creek when it was running full of coalbed methane gas discharge water. Have we been compensated for any of these losses? Of course not. However, I am not opposed to the coalbed methane gas industry. What I am opposed to is their blatant disregard for the people, the land and the water....Hat Tip to Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere.
California bans greenhouse gas power sources California moved Thursday to ban electricity from major greenhouse gas sources, an action that came as no surprise for Wyoming energy officials hoping to ship more Cowboy State coal by wire. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 to adopt the "greenhouse gas emissions performance standard," which will prohibit utilities and other energy providers from entering long-term contracts with sources that emit more carbon dioxide than a modern natural gas plant. "It represents a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to address the challenge of climate change," California PUC President Michael Peevey said. The new rules are expected to affect energy markets across the West. While there are almost no coal-fired plants in California, about 20 percent of the state's electricity comes from coal plants in Nevada, Wyoming, Utah and other Western states....
Survey finds mercury in fish Scientists looking for fish tainted by mercury found them in every fish and every river they sampled across the West, suggesting that industrial pollution generated around the world is likely responsible for at least some of it. The survey of 2,707 fish randomly collected from 626 rivers in 12 states represents the biggest regional sampling yet of mercury in fish in the West, said Spencer A. Peterson, senior research ecologist EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Corvallis. The findings by scientists from the EPA and Oregon State University were reported in this month's issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology and came out of an EPA survey of various environmental factors in rivers conducted between 2000 and 2004. Though the survey found some fish with elevated mercury levels, suggesting a local source such as an old mercury mine, most levels were low, in line with canned tuna found in grocery stores, said Alan T. Herlihy, associate research professor in the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. No attempt was made to specifically link the mercury in the fish to mercury in the atmosphere, but the low but widespread levels suggest the mercury came from deposition -- mercury in the atmosphere falling to the earth in rain and snow, Herlihy added....
Wolf compensation board plan praised A bill that would set up a long-awaited board to compensate Montana ranchers who lose livestock to wolves drew widespread support Thursday, although lawmakers are still looking for a way to fund it. Montana is required to create such a board under its wolf management plan approved in 2004 by the federal government. But the fiscal note attached to Rep. Bruce Malcolm's bill contained no money for it, only suggesting that livestock losses due to wolves could cost up to $200,000 a year and stating the board would not use money from state fishing and hunting licenses. Malcolm, a Republican from Emigrant, told the House Agriculture Committee that funding could come from several sources, but he said he planned to try to insert a request for $200,000 into the governor's proposed budget....
Feds review dispute over bison range Four high-ranking Department of Interior officials met Tuesday with employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Confederat-ed Salish and Kootenai tribal members to hear both sides in an argument over management of the National Bison Range near Moiese. "It's clear that both sides are passionate about the range," tribal spokesman Rob McDonald said. "Our history goes back longer, but (FWS) history there is 100 years long, too, and I think they see how much we both care about the land, the animals and the complex itself." Tribal employees were locked out of their jobs on Dec. 11 when FWS Director H. Dale Hall canceled a funding agreement that had made tribes responsible for some of the duties at the range for the previous 14 months. Hall had received a letter from regional director Mitch King saying King had come to the conclusion that joint operation of the range would not work. King cited unacceptable work performed by the tribes, concern for visitor safety and a hostile work environment created by CSKT's involvement....
Idaho gov: Build dams Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has proposed building more dams and expanding existing ones to keep more water from the Snake River in Idaho and recharge the dwindling Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. "Rather than looking at how to divide up scarcity, we ought to be looking at how we can get more to stay here," Otter said Wednesday at the Idaho Water Users Association convention. "The more water that we can keep from getting past that head gate, the more water we can have." Otter said he had met with Bureau of Reclamation officials about two or three new potential dam sites, which he did not identify. He also did not say which dams might be raised to impound more water. Tension over rights to water from the aquifer has risen with a case pending before the state Supreme Court, which has been asked to resolve a dispute between canal companies that hold senior rights and groundwater pumpers with junior rights. A decision could come between now and April, and any ruling could be followed by state legislation that would revise laws on water rights to ease the economic impact....
U.N. climate report will shock the world - chairman A forthcoming U.N. report on climate change will provide the most credible evidence yet of a human link to global warming and hopefully shock the world into taking more action, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said on Thursday. The IPCC report, due for release on Feb. 2 in Paris, draws on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries and has taken six years to compile. "There are a lot of signs and evidence in this report which clearly establish not only the fact that climate change is taking place, but also that it really is human activity that is influencing that change," R.K. Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, told Reuters. "I hope this report will shock people, governments into taking more serious action as you really can't get a more authentic and a more credible piece of scientific work. So I hope this will be taken for what it's worth."....
Preparing cloning for market Nestled in the picturesque countryside, two subzero coolers on a farm owned by Cyagra Inc. keep a hope of livestock cloning alive. The tanks hold genetic material for a virtual Noah's ark of cattle species as their optimistic owners wait for consumers to embrace the idea of consuming meat and milk from the offspring of clones. The Food and Drug Administration has already said it considers meat and milk from most cloned animals and their offspring safe, but the agency is months from allowing those products to be sold. Clones are produced by using a snippet of genetic material from an animal to create an embryo that develops in a surrogate mother's womb. The clones allow breeders to produce genetically identical copies of prized animals, more quickly reproducing valuable traits -- such as better health, leaner meat, and higher butterfat content in milk. While it is legal to clone domestic livestock, since 2001 the FDA has asked producers to refrain from selling milk or meat from such animals while it studies the food-safety question. Now that a final answer appears near, people who raise such animals are fine-tuning business plans. Some ranchers now pay Cyagra $17,000 for a single cloned calf, and a Texas rancher last month paid tens of thousands of dollars for nine clones of an elite longhorn cow. Why? Simple math: People who sell the offspring of prized breeds already pocket far more than that. For instance, three partners last year bid $100,000 for the daughter of a famed Triple Twist longhorn, a vanishing breed. They now are working with ViaGen Inc., a Texas firm that, like Cyagra, produces genetically identical twins. "We have acquired some of the best genetics in the longhorn," said Barbara Marquess , of Marquess Arrow Ranch , which is working with ViaGen to clone the $100,000 cow. Marquess said she and her partners have no intention of turning the cloned animals into food. "We're trying to save that genetics," she said. In the northeast corner of Iowa , rancher Frank Regan projects potential revenue from the sale of elite offspring could far exceed his cloning investment. In particular, he is counting on livestock descended from a cow nicknamed Dellia . Dellia produced high-protein milk used for making cheese , and gave birth to equally valuable offspring. Regan sold one of Dellia's granddaughters as a calf for $6,000 . The new owners made a quarter million dollars selling that cow's offspring. Regan figures he can eventually get $40,000 to $50,000 for offspring of a clone from that same lineage....
Cowboy confab courts kids Schoolchildren moseyed up for a sarsaparilla, donned bandanas and pounded leather tools at the Western Folklife Center this week in anticipation of the 23rd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The Gathering starts Saturday and continues through Feb. 3. On Tuesday, the center hosted home-schooled children, as well as youngsters from Southside Elementary, Mound Valley Rural School and Battle Mountain Elementary. Other schools joined the fun on Wednesday and Thursday. Workshops included leather key chain making, cowboy history lessons and handkerchief tying. Volunteer staff member Pami Briggs told a group of students about the origins of cattle herding in Mongolia and the development of cowboy traditions as they spread westward across Asia to northern Africa and Spain, finally crossing the ocean to Mexico and the United States. She also informed the students of the history of the Stetson hat and why cowboys slickers have such a tall slit up the back....

Apologies for the shortened version, but my internet connection was down for three hours, and has been back on intermittenly since. I'm going to post this while I can. Thank you Quest.